In fact, his first company visit was to Air China, where he got the red carpet treatment from none other than the chairman, Li Jiaxiang.

Mr Rogers (right) was keen to know from Mr Li if the airline was hedging the price of jet fuel. Here's how a CCTV website reported their conversation.

Li: We are the only mainland airline that hedges fuel prices.

Rogers: But the oil price has dropped. If you hedge, you're not making anything on the decline in oil prices.

Li: Our prevailing hedge price may perhaps be lower than the current market price.

Suddenly Mr Li turned interrogator:

Li: I want to ask you, how many Air China shares do you have?

Rogers: I have Air China shares. I'm very happy because I bought them six months or a year ago, or even longer.

Li: You don't want me to know how much money you're making, right?

... before being stalled by bank

Not even celebrities are immune to the frustrations of dealing with mainland banks.

Mr Rogers had brought along his passbook to Beijing so he could see how much interest his yuan account had earned. With his reporter escort in tow, he went to three different branches of his bank. Each time the answer was the same: the information was unavailable, because he had opened his account in Shanghai.

'Look, this is the same bank, I am myself, and the system is connected. So why can't I get it printed?' he groused. 'Do I need to go to Shanghai for this? This is very strange.'

It was an object lesson in why the current valuation of some mainland banks may be, well, just a little stretched and why Mr Rogers says he won't buy more bank shares at today's prices.

another bad-news day for tycoon

ParknShop has taken quite a drubbing in the Chinese press over its mislabelled codfish blunder. Half the town's newspapers splashed the story on their front pages yesterday. It seems like eons have passed since coverage of everything to do with Li Ka-shing was positive, even worshipful.

Apple Daily has been on the attack most of this week. People who know its owner Jimmy Lai Chee-ying say he's still bitter about the role of Mr Li and his supermarket chain in the billion-dollar collapse of his short-lived AdMart online grocery-shopping venture seven years ago.

Besides the report about codfish that was really oilfish causing serious intestinal discomfort for 14 ParknShop customers, the paper has gleefully reported allegations that a Beijing residential project owned by Hutchison Whampoa was sub-standard.

Last year was, as Queen Elizabeth II might have said, an 'annus horribilis' for Mr Li, what with all the kerfuffle over his son Richard and PCCW. This year doesn't seem much better.

Dough for show

Truancy in the boardroom should be discouraged, although it is open to debate whether there is anything to gain from tying the fees of wealthy directors to their attendance at board meetings. Whatever the case, the Hong Kong-listed arm of China Netcom has decided to lay down some guidelines that seem correct in principle, even if they may not work in practice.

Netcom proposes to reduce its current annual director's fee of HK$250,000 to HK$200,000 but to pay each board member an extra HK$10,000 for every meeting attended. In 2005, five of 13 directors attended all seven meetings, four attended six and three attended four. Bottom of the class was the former Goldman Sachs top banker John Thornton, with just three appearances.

Netcom has summoned its shareholders to an extraordinary general meeting on February 14 to approve the measure.